“What are you?—”
I slid into his lap, pressing him back into the armchair. His wings were cramped but rose around us, like a cocoon. I couldn’t help but realize how similar this position was tothatnight. Except Kaldur had been in a strange mood, a challenging one, like he’d wanted to test what I’d dare to do.
Now Kaldur looked up at me, his nostrils flaring, his gaze running between us.
“You want this now?” he murmured, his words on the edge of quiet amusement. Trying to make light of the situation when he likely saw I waspissed. And scared. “I must admit,dallia, I find it frightening to want you this much. I could be on the edge of death and still want you. How humbling that is.”
His voice was a deep purr, laced with his pain, and he’d only meant it as a distraction.
“Stop talking,” I murmured, leaning forward, keeping his eyes. “You’re going to feed.”
CHAPTER 40
ERINA
“You’re going to feed. And you’re going to heal,” I added.
I saw the physical reaction to the words, the aching hunger he couldn’t quite deny.
And all I wanted to know waswhy?Why was he doing this to himself?
Was it…was it a form of punishment? Was he punishing himself for what had happened between us? If that was the case, it only made my determination burn all the brighter.
“Enough of this,” I told him, a little growl in my own voice. The swell of my stomach was pressed into his abdomen, and I felt the heat of his blood seep against my nightdress. “Feed.Now.”
When I lowered my head, beginning to turn my neck, his hand whistled up and caught my chin. He turned my face, and then his lips were on mine.
It wasn’t a gentle kiss. It was hard and rough and demanding. And for a brief, selfish moment, I poured all of my fear, hurt, and frustration into that kiss.
It felt like he took it into himself. He lapped at my tongue, adeep groan—both pained and pleasured—rumbling between us as he deepened it.
“Growl at me like that again,dallia, and I’ll show you that even in this state, I can fuck you until dawn breaks.”
Was it wrong to be turned on when he was bleeding and hurt between my thighs?
And yet even bleeding and hurt, I still felt the unmistakable and unyielding hardness of his cock, which had stiffened against me.
“And I’ll let you,” I said, matching the tone from before, pulling back to meet his eyes. They narrowed, his pupils so large his eyes appeared nearly black. “As long as you feed first. You’ll need your strength.”
He would need to be enticed, and I was out of patience. I took his hand from beneath my chin and used the tip of his claw to slice a thin line against my neck.
A ragged growl tore from his throat as I pressed into him, turning my head so that all he had to do was latch his fangs into me.
“Let me take care of you,” I whispered into his ear. “Please, Kaldur.”
“What are you doing to me?” he breathed, the words whispered against my neck, his lips brushing the small wound. He groaned when I rolled my hips over him—an anguished sound, one that made him sound even more in pain than the wince when he’d stood.
My eyes latched on to the wildly beating pulse in his neck. I couldn’t look away; I was mesmerized by it. Relieved that he was all right, that he would be fully recovered soon. If only he wasn’t so stubborn.
On impulse, I bit into his neck with my dull little teeth, and he let out a hoarse cry, one of desire and surprise, and I nearly sighed in relief when I finally felt what I’d been waiting for.
The prick of his fangs. Spurred on, perhaps instinctively, by my own bite.
“Yes,” I whispered. “That’s it, Kaldur.Please.”
The familiar sensations of his feeding felt like a victory. I bit at his neck again, squeezing my teeth into the flesh, making a rush of hot breath from his nostrils flare against my skin, making his hips buck up into mine, even though he really should’ve kept still.
I pressed a hand to his bare, hot chest, feeling the throbbing steady beat of his heart as I tried to hold him still.
